Terry’s View – Property A Safe Haven
When the world gets noisy, money runs for cover. One ugly headline, a tariff threat, another flare-up overseas and the share-market starts shedding billions.
While global uncertainty has rattled the share market, property has been doing what Australian property usually does: refusing to panic.
Prices in key markets have held firm or kept edging up, underpinned by undersupply and high demand, boosted by high population growth, government support for first-home buyers, older people downsizing and an unprecedented high level of infrastructure developments.
In times of global disruption, Australian real estate is a dependable safe haven — tangible, local and (crucially) slower-moving and much less volatile than equities.
Unlike shares, you won’t wake up and see your house “marked down” 10% overnight because of a headline on the other side of the world. Property reprices more slowly and that’s exactly what investors crave when markets get jumpy: control, income and stability instead of minute-by-minute mood swings.
History shows that property investment is a safe haven from global financial upheaval. When the GFC hit in 2008, overseas property and credit markets blew up and the assumption was Australia would follow. There was some patchy weakness, then resilience.
Then came COVID. Same script, different crisis. Lockdowns hit, fear spiked, and “property crash” was practically a genre. Instead, Australia produced one of its strongest property booms in decades.
Property in Australia isn’t just an asset class — it’s supported by structural realities that don’t change overnight.
Property isn’t risk-free - individual suburbs can underperform, and over-leverage can turn a “safe haven” into a stress test.
Equities will keep swinging with the global news cycle but history suggests that when the world feels unstable, Australians keep parking capital in the thing that feels stable: housing — slow, tangible and built to last.
Regions Still All the Rage
Regional Australia is still all the rage for those looking to live in a more affordable lifestyle location.
The latest Regional Movers Index shows that capital residents moving to the regions still outnumber regional residents moving to capital cities by 31%.
Those who live in Sydney are keenest for a change, accounting for 54% of net capital outflows, while Melbourne residents make up 38% of movers.
While the Sunshine Coast still remains the favourite location for Australians who are keen to leave capital cities behind, the latest data shows buyers are now also looking further afield.
Movements to both the Sunshine Coast and second-place Geelong are at reduced volumes compared to this time last year.
The Fraser Coast in Queensland came in third, Lake Macquarie in NSW is fourth and Moorabool in Victoria is fifth.
Regional Australia Institute CEO Liz Ritchie says that data shows that regional movers are now looking further afield, leading to greater diversity in the top destinations for movers.
“We are seeing a trend of capital-city dwellers still choosing popular locations, but regional-to-regional movers looking elsewhere,” she says.
“Queensland remains popular, but regional movers are going further out from the Sunshine Coast in search of affordability.”
Despite December traditionally being a softer period for relocations, the report shows the seasonal drop was smaller in December 2025 than in previous years.
Ritchie says this underscores the continued momentum toward regional living.
Property Profits On The Rise
Property profits have hit a 20-year high, with 95.9% of sellers in the December quarter achieving a nominal profit.
Cotality’s latest Pain and Gain report shows that median profits hit a record $365,000 in the quarter. Of the 4.1% of sales that were at a loss, the median loss was $45,000.
The report analyses 102,000 existing property sales during the quarter.
Cotality Head of Research, Gerard Burg, says the gains have been built over time, proving that property is a long-term game.
“Most sellers have held their property for close to a decade, so the results we’re seeing now are a product of sustained value growth rather than short-term market movements,” he says.
Properties that sold for a profit had a median hold period of 9.2 years.
Houses outperformed units with 98.1% of house resales at a profit compared with 91.2% of unit resales.
Houses turn a median profit of $428,000, while units are $246,500.
The report says Brisbane is the most profitable capital city, with 99.9% of the sales during the quarter achieving a profit.
It is followed by Adelaide (99.4%), Perth (98.6%), Hobart (97.2%), ACT (93.8%), Sydney (93.3%), Melbourne (91.5%) and Darwin (86.1%).
Brisbane also has the highest level of median profit of $500,000, while Perth has the highest value of median loss at $90,000.
Granny Flat Surge
With supply tight, Australians are instead reinvesting in their homes, with many choosing to build Granny Flats to create more space and potentially boost income.
Analysis from NAB shows renovation loans jumped by 21% in 2025 – higher growth than the previous two years.
It says online searches from potential buyers for Granny Flats are also surging, especially in Sydney and Perth.
NAB Executive Denton Pugh says it reflects a broader shift in how Australians think about homeownership.
He says the Housing Industry Association expects granny flat builds to jump tenfold by 2026 compared to four years ago.
“People want their homes to work harder for them. With affordability still tough and rental demand rising, adding a secondary dwelling is becoming a smart, practical option. It gives homeowners extra space without stretching into a much bigger mortgage or taking on the cost of moving,” he says.
“More and more (Granny Flats are) becoming a long-term investment that strengthens the value of the property.”
Domain data shows Granny Flat is the most searched property term in Sydney, up 3.1% in the last year, while it is also in the Top Ten for searches in Perth and Adelaide.
New Housing Slump
New forecasts from the Master Builders Association have further reduced the number of homes the organisation expects to be built in Australia over the next five years.
It says while the volume of building approvals is moving in the right direction, it expects Australia to fall further behind the Federal Government's Housing Accord targets.
To meet the Accord target, more than 85,000 approvals are needed per year, between now and 2029.
Master Builders says some states are performing worse than others, with NSW likely to fall more than 100,000 homes below the target.
It says more work needs to be done by policymakers to improve capacity in the supply chain, rather than simply setting arbitrary targets for new home builds.
“This means more investment into the things that go into building these new homes, like available, shovel-ready land, skilled workers, apprentices and reducing red tape to improve productivity.”
Master Builders is predicting the Middle East war will likely push up the costs of construction further and make it more difficult for projects to get underway.
“The more expensive it becomes to build homes, the fewer homes we will likely build,” it says.
“If prolonged fuel shortages cause delays to projects because materials and personnel can’t get to site, then the impacts on the delivery of new homes could be very significant.”
